An Introduction to Nutrition for Gymgoers
This past decade, a lot of studies have been done about the proper nutrition for gymgoers. Gone is the time when people thought that eating healthy meant only eating salads. The reality is that our body needs energy in order to get through an intense workout, and it gets this energy from food. And salads, although great, do not provide a lot of fuel.
If you want to see the best results from your training program, proper nutrition is critical. This means the proper intake of calories, the proper ratio of macro nutrients – protein, carbohydrates, and fats – and the proper timing of these macro nutrients.
Many bodybuilders or Gymgoers, beginners and otherwise, do not understand the basics of good nutrition from a bodybuilding standpoint.
The nutrients in food are broken down into the three types of macro-nutrients mentioned bellow.
Proteins:
Protein is essential for growth and the building of new tissue as well as the repair of broken down tissue – like what happens when you work out.
Nitrogen is one of the most important elements in all protein. It is essential to animal life for tissue building.
We are told to eat sufficient protein (every 3-4 hours) to maintain a positive nitrogen balance because your body is actually in an anabolic, or building up phase in this state, where a negative nitrogen balance, from lack of adequate protein, indicates a catabolic, or tearing down state.
This is one reason why protein is important: lack of adequate protein, and your body begins to break down tissue (read: muscle) to meet its daily protein needs.
Good Food Choices For Protein
- Lean beef
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Fish
- Low fat dairy
Carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates have gotten quite a bad rap lately with all this low carb stuff out there. Are they responsible for fat gain? Should you avoid them? The answer is no to both.
Ignored is the fact that carbohydrates are the preferred fuel source for your bodies – and brain’s – energy needs. It’s carb energy that fuels your workouts.
The other thing people need to understand about carbohydrates is that too many calories, of any type, can lead to fat gain. With carbohydrates, people eat too many sugary carb foods, which also contain fat. And while it’s true that you need carbohydrates for energy, you only need so much.
If you overload your energy needs and are not active enough to burn the excess calories, they will be stored as fat. Most people are not that active and they also eat too many calories of all types, this is why obesity is the problem it is today.
Good Food Choices For Carbohydrates Are
- Whole grains
- Oatmeal
- Brown rice
- Sweet potatoes
Simple Carbohydrates
Good Fruit Choices Include
- Bananas
- Pears
- Apples
- Oranges
Fats:
Fats, technically called lipids, are the most energy dense of the three macro nutrients. They are composed of building blocks called fatty acids, which fall into three main categories:
1. Saturated
Found mainly in animal and dairy products, such as whole milk, cheese, beef, veal, lamb, pork and ham. Also, you will find this type of fat in some oils, such as coconut, palm kernel and vegetable shortening. Saturated fat is used by the liver to make cholesterol, which is involved in the production of hormones such as testosterone. This is important – you need some fat in your diet to keep your body’s hormone production where it should be.
2. Polyunsaturated
Found in things like corn, soybeans, safflower and sunflower oils. Some fish oils are also high in polyunsaturated fats. This type of fat may help lower total cholesterol. Since this includes good cholesterol, intake of this type of fat should be limited.
3. Monounsaturated
Found in vegetable and nut oils, such as olive, peanut and canola. They can help lower LDL, or bad cholesterol without lowering HDL, or good cholesterol.
Most foods are a combination of all 3 fatty acid types, one is typically the dominant type which therefore dictates it’s classification.
Food Choices For Fats Are
- Flaxseed
- Sunflower seeds
- Canola oil
- Olive oil
Fats To Avoid
Fats To Limit
Diet Journal
It makes a lot of sense to keep a journal of how much protein, carb and fat grams you eat every day, time eaten and total calorie intake. If you’re serious about building muscle, why guess at the amount of calories and grams of protein, etc.? The diagram bellow gives you a good idea of how much of each nutrient you should be getting.
